Lockheed Martin Unit Wins $409M Contract For NGT-PAC Program

Defense major Lockheed Martin Corp.’s (NYSE:LMT) business unit, Aeronautics, recently secured a contract for Next Generation Thermal, Power, and Controls (NGT-PAC) program.

Details of this Deal

Valued at $409 million, this contract was awarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH.

This deal involves numerous government agencies and industry aims at developing innovative technologies to carry out applied research for enhancing knowledge and understanding of future power, thermal and controls requirements. In addition, the NGT-PAC program will improve technology development to verify technological feasibility, and assess operability of thermal, power, and controls components and architectures through proof of key demonstrations.

The contract will utilize fiscal 2010 and 2017 other funds to finance the work, which will be executed in Fort Worth, TX. It is scheduled to be completed by Jul 31, 2024.

Our View

Lockheed Martin is the largest U.S. defense contractor with a platform-centric focus that guarantees a steady inflow of follow-on orders from a leveraged presence in the Army, Air Force, Navy and IT programs.

Recently, the company's business unit, Sikorsky Aircraft, secured a contract worth $3.8 billion from the U.S. Army, for multi-year production of Black Hawk helicopters. The cdeal included foreign military sales (FMS) to Saudi Arabia.. Per the contract, Sikorsky Aircraft will also provide services related to program system management, engineering, technical data and publications.

Earlier, in June the company’s Aeronautics business division won a modification contract to offer low-rate initial production of the 10th lot of F-35 Lightening II Joint Strike Fighter. The contract was worth $257.8 million.

Considering the favorable budgetary scenario now, we expect such generous fund flows from Pentagon, in the form of contracts, to help the company achieve its desired business expansion in the near term.

Price Movement

Lockheed Martin's stock was up about 11.8% in the last one year, underperforming the Zacks categorized Aerospace/Defense industry's gain of 27%. This could be because the earlier budget cuts have put pressure on the top line although the present defense budget is more in favor of the sector. Also, budget deficits and political uncertainty make future defense budgets vulnerable to cutbacks. As a result, Lockheed Martin's performance lagged behind the likes of General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE:GD) , Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) and The Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) that have outperformed the industry.

Zacks Rank

Lockheed Martin currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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